Soccer coaches reflect on longtime rivalry
In September 2008, Glastonbury boys soccer coach Mark Landers’ older brother Bill died suddenly from cancer at age 43.
Glastonbury dedicated its season to the Landers family and went 19-0-1. When the Tomahawks got to the Class LL championship game, there was a familiar foe — Farmington — waiting for them.
The two programs are intertwined in Connecticut soccer lore. Often one was No. 1, one was No. 2. Or vice versa. They would play each other in the first game of the regular season, under the lights at Farmington’s home field, Tunxis Mead, a crowd of as many as 800 people watching.
Farmington coach Steve Waters played for Landers’ father Bob at Wethersfield. Mark was 4, running around on the sidelines when Wethersfield won the state championship in 1975.
On this November day in 2008, they would meet for the Class LL title. The game had to be delayed to let in the 6,000 people who showed up.
The storybook ending would be that Glastonbury won. But the Tomahawks did not, losing 2-1.
“If we were going to lose, the only way we were going to lose was to him,” Landers said. “Because of our relationship and our family and his understanding of what our family went through and what our team went through.
“That’s kind of when it of started with us; our relationship got a lot closer.”
But now after 36 years, the winningest coach in state boys soccer history along with E.O. Smith’s John Blomstrann, Waters is retiring.
Moving on, he calls it.
“I would always say, ‘Ahh, I got another 3-5 years left.’ I’ve been saying that for years,” Waters said. “It was time.”
He never missed a game and is leaving with a 557-89-51 record. Blomstrann, who also has 557 wins, reached 500 first; Waters was second. Waters’ teams won nine state titles, the last in 2016.
He and Landers were fierce rivals and good friends. Waters, 60, is like an older brother to Landers, 47, who has won eight state titles. They’ve shared car rides to scout opponents, scouting reports, phone calls and texts after games.
“I think a lot of people think we’re not friends,” Landers said. “It’s FarmingtonGlastonbury. How could the Farmington and Glastonbury coaches hang out?”
They played each other for championships in 2005, 2008 and 2014. Farmington was nationally ranked and undefeated in 2005. Glastonbury won. Glastonbury was unbeaten in 2008. Farmington won. The last time, in 2014, Glastonbury won, 2-1, naturally in double overtime.
In the last six years, either Glastonbury or Farmington has won the Class LL title and in 2012, Farmington was in Class L and the Indians won that.
“The (year-end awards) banquet was always fun — who got to sit next to the bathroom,” Landers said.
“Yeah, the soccer banquet,” Waters said. “If he won…”
“We’d get Table 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5,” Landers said.
“In the front,” Waters said. “If you lost, you’d get Table 44. Near the men’s room.”
In 1975, Wethersfield won the first Class LL title and Waters went on to play soccer and baseball at the University of Hartford. He coached with Bob Landers for a year at Wethersfield upon graduation, then applied for the Farmington job. When they weren’t moving quickly enough to hire him, he told them he was deciding between Farmington and Avon. Farmington called him the next day.
There had been no Avon offer, Waters admitted later.
“Hey, I was in sales,” Waters said, laughing.
Landers started coaching at Glastonbury in 1999 but because they were in different conferences — Farmington in the Northwest Conference and Glastonbury in the CCC, they didn’t start playing each other regularly until 2008. The rivalry was there all along. Glastonbury holds a 9-7-1 advan- tage during the Waters-Landers era.
“I used to tell him he used to polish my shoes when I played in high school,” Waters said.
“Yes, I remember in 2005 when we went to the finals, he reminded me that I used to polish his shoes at practice,” Landers said. “I said, ‘OK, let’s see who’s polishing whose shoes after this game is over.’ ”
They knew each other so well. They prepared for games in the same way.
“It’s almost like a chess game with us — X, O, who’s going to do what,” Waters said.
Naturally, they’ve gotten into it in the heat of the game.
“I don’t think we ever swore at each other,” Landers said.
“No, because your father (now Landers’ volunteer assistant) wouldn’t allow it,” Waters said.
Waters, who sells real estate and is moving to Westbrook, isn’t sure what’s next. It will be hard to stay off the sidelines after 47 years of playing and coaching. Landers hopes he will be getting texts after games, telling him what to tinker with. There will still be Friday night trips to Tunxis Mead under the lights but without Waters on the opposing sidelines.
Landers, whose team won the Class LL title last month, went to Waters’ last game, a 1-0 loss to Pomperaug in the second round of the Class LL tournament.
“I stood in the corner where I normally stand,” Landers said. “At one point, they were in such control of the game. Pomperaug scored. Then you’re looking at the clock and you’re like, ‘Wow, there’s 19 minutes left here.’ They did everything possible to try to get that goal. It just wasn’t going to happen.
“It was a weird feeling. But it was kind of a fitting for a guy who has meant so much to that school and community to be there on that field to coach the last game.”